Version 4.0 includes many changes to use the WordPress Object Cache and Transients API functions to improve performance. The performance gains will be most noticeable for logged-in users and websites that aren't using full-webpage caching plugins.

Categories: PHP, WordPress

Tags: attachment, buttons, cache, cdn linker, exclude pages, facebook, featured, g+, google plus, google+, image, language, Like, linkedin, meta, multilingual, nextgen, object, open graph, pinterest, search engine optimization, send, seo, share, shortcode, social, stumbleupon, transient, tumblr, twitter, widget, wikipedia, wp-wikibox, wp_cache

I've found a few snippets of PHP code to read XMP / XML meta data from an image file, but none that I would call very robust or efficient. I ended up writing my own for Underwater Focus, and I'm quite pleased with the result. In fact, after adding support for a shortcode, I packaged it as an Adobe XMP plugin for WordPress.

Categories: PHP, WordPress

Tags: adobe, function, gallery, image, iptc, library, lightroom, media, method, nextgen, photoshop, php, rdf, shortcode, xml, xmp, xmpmeta

A PHP class to retrieve remote files (such as social button images and JavaScript), cache them for a period of time, and return a modified URL to the cached files. This class is from the NextGEN Facebook OG plugin for WordPress.

Categories: PHP, WordPress

Tags: cache, google+, javascript, php, social buttons, tumblr, url, wordpress

Continuing the earlier theme of "Optimizing Images to Save Bandwidth and Speed Page Load", you can also encode small (background) images directly in your stylesheets. For each image / page element encoded within a stylesheet, it means one less HTTP connection for content, which in turn means pages finish loading faster.

Categories: CSS

Tags: background images, base64, css, css stylesheet, download, encoding, faster, image elements, page element, speed, stylesheet, waterfall, webpage, website, website speed

A few weeks ago I mentioned the wesley.pl script from GitHub to optimize images, and how I had modified it to keep (or discard) the EXIF / XMP information. Making sure images are as small as possible is important to save bandwidth and improve page load times (and google rank), so I think it's worth discussing my image optimization process in more detail.

Categories: Bash, Perl, UNIX (Generic), WordPress

Tags: bandwidth, compress, image, improve, optimize, page load, save, smushit, speed, wesley.pl

Every social website offers some-kind of JavaScript code to insert their button on webpages. Unfortunately, there's no standard when it comes to the JavaScript code itself. Learn how to re-use the same asynchronous JavaScript function to retrieve most social website JavaScript code, and improve the rendering speed of your webpages.

Categories: JavaScript

Tags: asynchronous, button, javascript, load, share, social, speed, time, webpage

Using regular expressions to get at single values is quick and easy, but I wanted to create arrays for rdf:li values, and split each lr:hierarchicalSubject keyword into an additional second-dimension array.

Categories: PHP

Tags: adobe, array, hierarchical, keywords, php, rdf, xml, xmp

To improve page load times (and Google ranking), you should make sure all jpeg, png, and gif files are properly optimized. Instead of writing my own script for jpegtran, pngcrush, and gifsicle, I used Mike Brittain’s Wesley.pl script on GitHub. It works great, though I did have to modify it to change the “jpegtran -copy”[...]

Categories: Perl, UNIX (Generic)

Tags: exif, gif, gifsicle, github, google rank, jpeg, jpegtran, optimize, page load, png, pngcrush, wesley.pl

Plugins often create their own folders under ./wordpress/wp-content/ without considering that directory indexing might be turned on, or that files within that folder are located under a DocumentRoot, and thus available to anyone. Some configuration files are also vulnerable in this way -- the wp-config.php file, for example.

Categories: HTTP Server, WordPress

Tags: apache httpd, bulletproof security, cache, configuration, custom code, nextgen gallery, plugin, security, vulnerability, w3 total cache, wordpress

I’ve been coding a lot more recently, and this Xmas period has given me the chance to catch up on a few things… NextGEN Facebook OG v2.1 should be out shortly, with support for Pinterest, and a few more options to control where the Open Graph meta tags appear.

Categories: PHP, WordPress

Tags: nextgen facebook og, open graph, pinterest

Are you frustrated by the lack of autocomplete in root's shell on Mac OS X? I've tried a few different solutions, and the easiest / simplest I found is to create an /etc/inputrc file with the following text.

Categories: Mac OS X

Tags: autocomplete, bash, inputrc, mac os x, readline, root, shell

When creating new tables, you can use "create table if not exists $tablename ()" for example, but the same "if not exists" condition is not available when adding columns or creating indexes. There are several solutions available to create a similar "if not exists" test for columns and indexes, but all of them (or at least the ones I found) are based on long SQL statements and/or stored procedures. I wanted something more flexible and perl-based, so wrote the following snippet of code.

Categories: MySQL, Perl, SQLite

Tags: add column, alter table, create index, database, if not exists, perl, sql, sqlite

Added the --max=running command-line option to use process sizes from the largest number of running httpd processes recorded. Use --max=running if the size and number of httpd processes on the web server increase and decrease rapidly or unpredictably. The --max=realavg setting should be more accurate for web servers that have stable httpd sizes, and progressive increase / decrease in the number of httpd processes.

Categories: HTTP Server, Perl, UNIX (Generic)

Tags: apache, apache httpd, check-httpd-limits, httpd, limits, maxclients, perl, prefork, process, serverlimit, size

Autossh is a small front-end for SSH that can monitor the connection, and restart the tunnel if it drops or stops responding. I that found the startup scripts available for autossh on the internet were a little too basic for my needs -- I wanted autossh to start multiple connections, and to start/stop each one individually if I needed -- so I wrote my own.

Categories: Bash, CentOS, SSH

Tags: autossh, bash, centos, init.d, script, ssh, startup

I wrote a bash script this morning to report the size of Wordpress cache folders, the number of files they contain, read each file to prime the OS disk cache, and optionally flush the OS disk cache as well. This might be a script you could execute to email a daily/weekly report of cache folder sizes, or perhaps execute during/after booting a server to prime the OS disk cache, or even on a regular schedule to make sure the OS cache is always primed.

Categories: Bash, UNIX (Generic), WordPress

Tags: bash, cache, disk cache, flush, os, prime, report, sync, wordpress

It’s hard to believe, but I just came across an upload scanner for BBS’s that I wrote back in 1992… and it’s still available for download! PKINS710.ZIP – “PKinsert Version 7.10 released Jan 1st 1992 Check archive integrity, insert comment/ taglines, scan for virii, add and delete disclaimers, etc. Handles Zip, Lzh, Arj and Arcs[...]

Categories: C, Other (Non-UNIX)

Tags: bbs, pkinsert, turbo-c

I recently added some disk caching for MySQL queries, Wordpress objects, PHP opcode, and PHP web pages on my server. There are several different caching techniques and applications available, and memcached seems like one of the more popular ones. Right or wrong, it appears to be the default go-to for many developers these days. Since I'm a SysAdmin by profession (with maybe a penchant for scripting and integration), I tend to have a more "systems" oriented approach -- which led me to first consider, and then choose disk caching over memcached. In this post, I'll outline the reasons I chose disk caching, and why in most circumstances it might be superior to memcached.

Categories: HTTP Server, PHP, UNIX (Generic)

Tags: apache httpd, caching, disk cache, files, front-end, httpd, i/o, latency, memcached, operating system, performance, php

Over the past few weeks I've been looking at different solutions to improve the speed of my WordPress websites. The first step was to mirror and redirect the static content to another server (aka Content Delivery Network or CDN). In the case of PHP and WordPress, there are several additional options available to improve local web server performance. I'll describe the ones I'm currently using, including their expected impact to performance and short-comings. There are additional infrastructure solutions that can improve performance, like load-balancing, Nginx, Varnish, etc. This post is about optimizing the Apache Httpd back-end.

Categories: HTTP Server, PHP, WordPress

Tags: apache, apache httpd, apc, bandwidth, cache, cache servers, caching, cdn, content delivery network, httpd, linux, memcached, opcode, performance, performance gain, php, php.ini, plugins, rewrite, static content, wordpress

Most of the information I’ve seen on PHP opcode caches focus on the performance aspect — having the opcode precompiled and ready — but the other benefit I’ve found is that process sizes are reduced dramatically. This may not be apparent at first, if you don’t consider the shared memory used by each process.

Categories: HTTP Server, PHP, WordPress

Tags: apache, apc, cache, httpd, memory, mpm, opcode, optimize, php, php.ini, prefork, speed, tune, wordpress

Recently, a co-worker was asking about my configuration for connecting to the corporate VPN, and I thought the information might be useful for others as well — I use a combination of Tunnelblick; an OpenVPN client for Mac OS X, Sidekick; an application that changes Mac OS X settings based on your physical location (and/or network SSID, etc.), and a little shell script I wrote to start the VPN, define additional routes, and update my dynamic DNS hostname.

Categories: AppleScript, Bash, Mac OS X, OpenVPN

Tags: applescript, bash, bind, dynamic dns, location, mac os x, macbook, openvpn, sidekick, tunnelblick, vpn